Sunday, March 24, 2013

So you want to be an author...

You walk into a bookstore and see lots of fabulous books on
shelves.You walk out of the store with
a bag full of books because you love reading. You love the written word.You can’t get enough.

The first book you read is pretty good.The second not so hot.And finally you read one that makes your
blood boil until you say – I can write better than that.So you sit down at the computer and
write.Because hey – you hate your day
job and you think that writing a book has to be a really easy way to make
money.After all, you make your own
hours.You control your own
destiny.And books get made into movies
all the time.Cha-ching!You’ll be rich in no time.

Ha!

I believe writing is a wonderful career choice.The process of sitting down and building a
story line by line is challenging and incredibly rewarding.But let me debunk a few myths about the
writing life.

Yes – you make your own hours.That just means that often you are up at
4a.m. to write pages before going to your day job or (like me) you’re up until
all hours of the night getting your goals met.You’ll also find that you’ll need to work every day and that it will be
a struggle to take a day off when you are working under contract.Just because you are technically working for
yourself doesn’t mean things are easier.They’re just—different.

Yes—most writers have a day job.They aren’t striking it rich with a book
deal.Most first time traditionally
published novelists get advances between $3,000-$10,000 a book.$5,000 is probably the most typical
number.Now that is an advance on your
royalties, so if the book sells well you’ll make more, but don’t count on
it.And even if you do make more,
royalties start getting paid about 6 months to a year after the book comes
out.(This is different if you
self-publish, but those authors I know who have done REALLY well
self-publishing and have been on the Kindle best-seller lists have often pulled
in around $10,000-$12,000 a year on a book…the more typical number is lower, so
that’s not the best way to get rich quick, either.)Yeah – the old adage of don’t quit your day
job is pretty important advice when it comes to being an author.I’m lucky that I can make my living as an
author…but I am also aware that can change at any time.An author is only as good as their last
contract and their last book.So you
have to keep pushing forward and hoping that your work connects with readers or
you’ll be out of a job.

Yes – books get made into movies all the time.But I have heard that the percentage of books
that have been optioned and actually made it to screen is somewhere around the
1% mark.There are lots of stories being
told on the page.Just go to your local
bookstore on a Tuesday when new titles are being released and you’ll see how
many are there…and that is only the books that store is stocking. Catching the
eye of a film producer and actually seeing the book turned into a movie is a
lot like catching lightning in a bottle.If it happens – WHOO HOOO!But
don’t think that’s the norm.

Yes – in many ways more than ever authors control their own
publishing destiny.There are lots of
ways to get a book into a reader’s hands.YAY!But I think too many writers
are far too busy worrying about their publishing options and whether they’ll
make a million dollars when they sit down and write.Because while those are the really cool,
often impossibly unattainable aspects of being a novelist, they cannot be
controlled.The only thing you can control
in the business of publishing is writing the book, getting to The End and then
going back and making it the very best book it can be.

If you want to be a writer and you are busy thinking of the
flexible hours and the potential movie deals – find something else to do
because you’re just going to be disappointed.If you want to write the best book you can—welcome to the club.Writing isn’t always easy.It isn’t always fun.But it is rewarding.And I can’t imagine doing anything else.

1 comment:

Giving yourself permission to not be writing seems to be the tough one.

I've not been productive enough for the last few months. Half starting things, then abandoning them, starting to read a book then losing concentration.

I've realised that after writing four novels one after the other and working full time at the day job, it would have been fine to give myself a couple months off and recharge before starting all over again. Instead I've fought it and paddled on and made my head even worse.

Sometimes it's the right thing to do, just down tools for a while and recharge the brain.